Eyeing a bus system, Unalaska gives public transit a test run

Does Unalaska need a public bus service?

That's what the city government wants to know, and earlier this month it ran a free public bus route from one end of town to the other, from Dutch Harbor to Unalaska Valley.

City employees, especially from the planning department, drove the airporter-style van, picking up 261 passengers, according to Planning Director Bil Homka, who is overseeing the $5,000 project, which includes another test week coming up in January.

Another 61 filled out surveys, asking how long it took to get to a bus stop, whether their destination was home, work, shopping, a medical or other appointment, and what would be a reasonable price for a bus ride. Homka said there will likely be a fee, if the bus system is approved by the city council, along with funding for two buses. He said a day pass, covering rides all day, is one likely scenario.

Homka said the riders were overwhelmingly in favor of a bus system.

The political question, he said, is whether the council would approve a public service competing with the private taxi cabs. Most of the riders last week, he said, were "typically not the type who take the cab."

One taxi driver, Joey Vo, of Blue Checker, who owns four taxis, doesn't like the idea of a city bus system, and said it would be a "waste of money."

But she emphasized that taxis perform services that a bus doesn't, like waiting outside a store while sailors and fishermen are shopping and keeping their luggage in the taxi, especially when they only have a short amount of time on land away from their boats.

"We didn't pay any attention to the bus. We didn't have to," she said. The bus didn't take any business away from the taxis, she said.

Homka said the entire route, with one bus, is a two-hour trip. That's why he thinks two buses would be needed, and of a larger size than the recreation department's 15-seat van, which was used in the test runs.

The first runs were a learning experience, and one lesson is that A-frame or sandwich board bus stop signs tend to get blown down by the wind. Signs announcing the stops were then attached to buildings. The Ballyhoo Lions Club school bus shelters also served as city bus stops.

Local seafood processing companies and supermarkets are very supportive of a bus system, said the planning department's James Price. One surprise, he said, was no customers at Alyeska Seafood's convenience store. And while initial plans called for the bus to go to docks at the end of the Dutch Harbor Spit, he said the spit portion was removed because it took up too much time. So now, the northern terminus is at Icicle Seafoods' processing vessel Gordon Jensen on Ballyhoo Road. The southern starting and ending point remains the same, at the tennis courts at the corner of Overland Drive and East Broadway Avenue.

Homka said he still needs to review the data gathered, to prepare a more comprehensive report for the city council.

This story first appeared in The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman and is republished here with permission.